Music memories

I love how music has the power to transport you to a particular time or place. How hearing a band or a song suddenly triggers dormant memories of people, emotions and situations. It's good to sometimes go back through your musical archives, to remind yourself where you came from, and how you've changed for better or worse. It makes a good measuring stick.

I have this a lot, because I tend to do life in stages; I listen the hell out of a band or an album for a couple of months, and then move on to the next one. It's not that I stop liking them/it, I just naturally progress to the next one, and the next, and the next. This means that when I hear them/it again at a later stage, it's like stepping through a wormhole in time. Some songs that have got me through bad times, and that have meant a lot to me, give me quite a serious emotional kick, which I find fascinating. I would just love to study the psychology of music, as I think that the world would honestly just collapse without it.

Another part of that hypothetical study would be the reasons for one's affinity to specific genres of music. How much is nature and how much is nurture when it comes to individual tastes in music? Why am I drawn so strongly towards minor keys, when some others prefer major keys? Why do I find a piece sad when others find it happy? WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE R&B FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS UNHOLY? I think that if you could understand the psychological patterns behind music tastes, one could potentially discover a whole new way of looking at people.